Primal Shift: Volume 2 (A Post Apocalyptic Thriller)

by Griffin Hayes

  Nikki was sure they were about to die, and she reached over and held her brother’s hand. Then the truck hit a rock, causing it to flip, and Aiden’s hand was torn away.

  Dana

  A thick cloud of smoke rose from the battle wagon’s ruined engine. The truck had stopped, that was about all Dana could tell. She was dazed, her body aching all over. Beside her, Bud leaned against the steering wheel, blood dripping from his nose. His right eye was swollen shut.

  In the back, things weren’t any better. Nikki was rubbing the side of her head. But the seat next to her, where Aiden had been sitting seconds before, was now empty.

  Dana peered through the cracked windshield and saw they were at the foot of the mountain. They had to get out of the battle wagon and find the entrance to the facility before Jeffereys and his Wiper friends showed up. She shook Bud, who leaned back and looked over at her with his one good eye.

  “You get the licence plate on that guy?” he said touching his nose and staring down at his fingers covered in blood.

  “No, but you’ll have another chance when they get here.” Dana turned to Nikki. “Can you walk?”

  She glanced down at her legs. “I think so,” she said, but it was clear that wasn’t her main concern. Nikki stumbled out of the truck, calling Aiden’s name.

  Dana got out, too, her own legs feeling like she’d just taken a ride on the world’s craziest roller coaster. She was scanning the area around the truck, looking for Aiden, when she saw the giant metal blast doors in the side of the mountain. They were open slightly, a white truck with a Tevatron decal on the side in the act of entering the facility; forever frozen like a seared clock after a blast. Clearly, The Shift had struck just as this poor guy was heading inside.

  “Aiden?” she heard Nikki call out.

  Dana was about to help in the search when she spotted someone near those blast doors. In three strides, she was back at the battered battle wagon, pulling out her AR-15 and the silver briefcase with the C4. Dana checked the magazine and turned to make sure they weren’t about to be attacked by a hoard of Wipers streaming out from inside the complex. The tiny silhouette near the blast doors was still there, and it was waving at her. Although Dana’s ears continued to ring from the blow she’d taken to the head during the crash, she could swear the figure was calling her name.

  When the shape stepped into the light, she realized it was Aiden, waving them in.

  Dana turned to tell Nikki and Bud when she saw a small dust cloud approaching.

  Jeffereys and his men. They didn’t have the balls to follow them down the steep embankment, but then again they didn’t need to, ‘cause here they were.

  Dana raced to the truck and pulled open the driver-side door. Bud was looking for something to stem his bleeding nose. She swung the strap of his rifle over her shoulder and pulled him by the arm. “You’re just gonna have to let it bleed for now,” she told him, and the fear in her eyes must have driven the message home ‘cause he stumbled out of the truck at once.

  Together, they began heading for the blast doors. Nikki must have heard Aiden calling ‘cause she was already there.

  They slipped inside a moment later, and Dana was immediately shocked by the long concrete tunnel, just as Nikki had described, but more than that, she couldn’t believe the lights were still working.

  “We’ve found Shangri-La,” Bud said.

  Dana was still helping him along. “Yeah, too bad we have to blow it up.”

  The earthquake which followed The Shift had split the concrete in places. Weeds crawled up through cracks in the floor. They made it to an opening when Nikki said, “This was the underground train system I saw.”

  There wasn’t any train though, and Dana glanced at Aiden, almost for confirmation, but the boy only shrugged. And why shouldn’t he? All those memories buried inside of him were locked beyond his reach.

  As they prepared to step onto the tracks, a deer jumped out and sprinted down the corridor, toward the blast doors. Dana clutched her heart. None of them had their weapons at the ready, and if that had been a Wiper, they might have been in real trouble. She unslung Bud’s AR-15 and handed it to him, bringing her own around as well. They only had a half dozen mags left, so if Jeffereys was stupid enough to come in after them, then every shot would need to count.

  Then came the clatter of gunfire echoing from the other end of the corridor. A moment later, Jeffereys’ voice yelling “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”

  Dana turned and saw they’d slaughtered the deer that was bolting for the blast doors. A case of mistaken identity, but all the more reason why they didn’t have a second to lose.

  Larry

  A loud hissing erupted as the sub’s ballast tanks blew the last of the air out, allowing sea water to rush in. They were quickly losing buoyancy, and Larry felt the boat start to sink before it settled on the bottom of the shallow bay. They were only a few meters away from the pier where the Alabama had been docked. The distance wasn’t big, but it would allow them to safely launch the sub’s nuclear payload from underwater.

  At gunpoint, Donavan had taken Kulik and Callahan to each station to ensure everything would go off without a hitch. The missiles themselves were still in good shape along with the fire control system used to open the hatches and boost them out of the water.

  Zhou’s cooperation inputting New Jamestown into the targeting system had been the final piece of the puzzle.

  “Who thought preparing to fire a nuke would have been such a pain?” Larry commiserated. He was staring at Joanne, cradled in Finn’s arms, her face buried into his shoulder. She hadn’t been disfigured by the beating he gave her, not yet, but once New Jamestown and its occupants were reduced to a flaming pile of atomic waste, there’d be plenty of time to play.

  “Any final words for your friends back home?” Larry asked.

  Finn remained stoic, despite the trembling rage Larry could see building within him. “Have I mentioned how much I’m going to enjoy killing you?”

  Larry grinned. “You have.” And then slammed his fist down on the fire button.

  All at once, the sub shook as the UGM-133 Trident II was ejected from the missile tube and cut through the water into the air. Once above the waterline, the engines ignited, lifting the giant destructive beast skyward.

  A moment later, Donavan’s voice crackled over the satellite phone. “Tracking confirmed. Missile launch successful.”

  Nikki

  They stood before a pair of thick metal doors. A yellow biohazard symbol warning them of danger inside.

  “This is it,” Nikki said with confidence. These were the doors she’d seen back in New Jamestown after touching Aiden’s arm.

  Bud leaned in and kicked them open. “I’d prefer to take my chances with whatever biohazard’s behind that door than stand here waiting for Jeffereys and his goons to show up.”

  Inside was the giant glass tube with the same pulsating white light Nikki’d seen before. Although witnessing it via the thin veil of someone else’s memory was more like watching a movie than it was being there in person, the sight was still impressive.

  Beside her, Dana, Bud, and Aiden stood hypnotized by the sight before them. It was almost mystical, drawing your eye no matter how much you tried to look away.

  Dana was the first to move, stopping next to the glass tube before opening the briefcase. Nikki stepped toward the light. Reaching out a hand, she let her fingers touch the glass before the electrical charge made her yank them away. But that wasn’t all she noticed. The glass tube with the light descended deep into the ground, farther than the eye could see.

  Dana pushed the detonators into the plastic explosives and began setting the timer. Bud stayed near the door as look out.

  “We don’t really know what this’ll do, do we?” Aiden asked pointing at the bomb.

  “Finn said the pulse had to be stopped,” Dana told him. “Cutting the power source is the quickest way to do that.”

  Aiden shook his he
ad. “That’s not what I mean. What if we blow this up, and all the memories we created after The Shift begin to fade?”

  Dana stopped and peered up at Bud. The two exchanged a strange, almost sad glance before she went back to priming the C4. “I guess that’s the risk we gotta take,” she said. “Besides, the way Finn laid it out, it’ll take days, if not weeks before that happens.”

  Nikki hadn’t said a word, but she couldn’t help feeling the bomb wasn’t the answer. They would be destroying an incredible source of free energy. A tragedy in the highest degree, given the current state of the world. She remembered seeing the adjacent room filled with computer monitors. Maybe that was where the pulse was being controlled. If something had to be done, wouldn’t starting there make more sense? Nikki was about to make that suggestion when Bud shouted a warning: “Here they come.” He slid behind the open door and out of sight, waving frantically at the others to hide as he set his rifle down and pulled out his Glock.

  Jeffereys stepped into the room without seeing Bud and stopped, transfixed by the light. So were the Wipers behind him. There was an AK poised in Jeffereys’ hand. With a savage blow, Bud used the butt of his pistol to chop at Jeffereys’ wrist, sending the AK clattering to the floor. Next, he grabbed Jeffereys in a neck lock and put the barrel of his Glock to his temple. Now Jeffereys was looking back at the Wipers, their weapons pointed directly at both men.

  “Tell them to move back, or I’ll blow your head off.”

  Jeffereys waved his hands. “Do as he says. Do as he says.”

  Slowly, the Wipers backed away.

  Dana called out to Nikki and Aiden. “Close those doors.”

  “You kill me,” Jeffereys spat, “and you’re all dead.”

  Bud stripped the pack off Jeffereys’ back and tossed it to Dana. “Won’t take those Wipers more than a few minutes to realize they don’t need this grease ball and come charging in. Have a look in this backpack and see if there’s anything useful.”

  Searching through it, Dana came out with the satellite phone. “This how you been keeping in touch with Larry,” she asked, shoving it in his face.

  Jeffereys’ lips cracked into a sly smile. The same one he’d shown her back in San Francisco when he made her wear that pink dress. The night he’d tried to rape her.

  Dana thumbed down the button and spoke. “If you can hear this, Larry, I want you to know your time running things is just about up.”

  There was silence for a moment before Larry’s voice came on. “Is that so? That’s interesting, because I’m sending a little surprise to your friends in New Jamestown.”

  Then came the sound of a struggle on the other end and another voice that sounded like Finn. “Dana, they’ve fired a nuke from the sub. It’s gonna hit New Jamestown in eight min ... ”

  More shouting and then silence.

  Dana looked over at Bud and then Nikki with shock and growing terror. Lou, Ethan, Tanner, and a host of others still in New Jamestown were about to be vaporised.

  “I’m telling you, destroying the pulse isn’t the answer,” Nikki said, almost reluctantly. “There was something in my brother’s memories I saw, something I didn’t want to mention, but now I don’t see any other way.”

  Dana took her by the shoulders. “What? What did you see?”

  She pointed through another set of door to stairs that led to the control room. “We may be able to change the frequency so that it pushes all the old memories to the surface at once.”

  “If she’s right,” Bud said, tightening his grip on Jeffereys, “the shock of it should stun the Wipers long enough to let Finn and the others deactivate that nuke before it detonates.”

  “Wipers won’t be the only ones who get stunned,” Dana said, as they picked up the suite case with the C4. “If what you’re saying is true, then anyone with suppressed memories will likely be knocked right off their feet.”

  The Wipers were heading back into the room with the shimmering light when Nikki and the others reached the control room. Computer readouts were on every wall, along with rows of servers blinking like a forest of Christmas trees. The image brought the edges of a faint memory into Nikki’s mind. A tree with lights and presents underneath. Her father, Jim, was there wearing an old bathrobe along with her mother, Carole, sipping on a coffee. Nikki and Aiden were tearing at boxes covered in candy cane wrapping. It was her first memory, and the surge of emotion was both exhilarating and intensely painful. But that memory had far more dire implications. If that was how Nikki and others like her might feel with the return of a single memory, what would it be like when they all came charging back? That was why Nikki hadn’t wanted to tell Dana about changing the frequency. Forcing all those memories to the surface wouldn’t just hurt Aiden, it would kill him. It was the secret fear she’d harboured all along, always hoping she’d been wrong. But now she knew that wasn’t the case. Stopping the Wipers and stopping Larry from laying waste to New Jamestown and countless other places would mean sacrificing Aiden, the only family she had left.

  Just then, Jeffereys broke free and ran for the door. Bud managed to get off three rounds before Jeffereys disappeared.

  “I’m sure I hit him,” he said, about to give chase.

  “Let him go,” Dana said. “Just keep an eye on the door. He may be back with reinforcements any second.”

  Unable to keep it in any longer, Nikki told Dana about what this would do to Aiden. For his part, Aiden, swallowed hard as she got to the part where it might kill him.

  “We don’t have much time left,” Dana said, then looked at Aiden. “What do you wanna do?”

  Aiden nodded serenely, even though it was clear his heart was beating like mad. “If it’ll stop Larry and save those people, then yes.”

  And with that, Nikki laid her hands on his cheeks and closed her eyes. She was searching through the ocean of memories within him, watching them whiz by like shooting stars. Then one came into focus. A technician sitting at a nearby console, tweaking a knob marked Acoustic Wave Modifier. She could see that turning it to the left lowered the ultrasound’s intensity. Turning it to the right strengthened the signal.

  The vision in Nikki’s head faded, and she immediately walked to the far end of the console, flickering lights all around her, and pointed to the knob she’d seen in Aiden’s memory. “This is it.”

  Dana studied it. “To the right?” she asked.

  Fighting back the tears, Nikki nodded: “As far as it’ll go.”

  Dana was reaching for it when an explosion blew open the doors to the control room, sending Bud flying backwards into a wall, knocking him unconscious. Rows of computer servers blocked them from the blast, but it was obvious Jeffereys and the Wipers meant business.

  Unslinging her AR-15, Dana ducked behind one of the servers and opened fire, spraying bullets in their direction, blowing out computer screens and damaging the equipment as she unleashed hell.

  “Nikki, turn the knob quick!” Dana said, glancing over her shoulder as she changed magazines.

  Nikki’s gaze bounced between the dial before her and Aiden on her right, his hands covering his ears and shielding his head from the bits of glass and plastic exploding around them. Almost in slow motion, she watched her hand reach out and crank it to the right. The last thing she saw was Aiden, screaming in pain before he sank to the floor.

  Finn

  Finn was down, nursing the crack to the skull he’d taken from Donavan after he’d tried to warn Dana about the missile launch. Larry was in the middle of telling them there was nothing they could do to stop the inevitable when an ear-shattering sound like the screeching of a train’s wheels made Finn and nearly everyone else in the missile room clamp their hands over their ears. The pain was so unbelievable, Finn was seeing starbursts of color blooming before his eyes. Slowly, those colors morphed into the shape of a crib. He was crying for his mother, holding onto bars that would form a pattern in his life to come. Another flash, and now he was in a Wells Fargo. Heart hammering in his
chest, he was with Joanne and that psycho, Kevin Butler, and they were shuffling tellers into the back room.

  Money to pay the mortgage, that was the only thing on Finn’s mind, but it was clear by the whacked-out look in Kevin’s eyes that he was interested in something else. A middle-aged woman in a plaid skirt with a name tag that read Doris raised her hands and tried pleading with Kevin that none of them knew the combination to the vault. The one who did was the manager, Sam Hanover, and he was out to lunch. An answer Kevin didn’t seem to like one bit and raised his pistol and blew each and every one of them away.

  Another quick flash, and now Finn was standing before a judge, faced with the option of pleading guilty for murdering those four women, a penalty which meant he’d surely die in prison, or telling the truth and risking lethal injection. Finn could feel his lips mouthing the words: “Not guilty, Your Honor,” when there was a final blinding light, and he was back on the sub.

  The Wipers standing guard over them were now on the floor themselves, looking dazed and disoriented, as though trying to shake off a heavy night of drinking.

  Only Zhou, Callahan, Kulik, and Donavan were still standing, which made sense since none of them had been affected by The Shift. Kulik leapt at Donavan and tackled him to the ground. The two wrestled briefly before the XO got him in a choke hold and put him to sleep. Meanwhile, Callahan and Zhou were busy disarming the Wipers who were still groggy. One of them had a .45 1911, which he stuffed in his belt.

  Next to Finn, Joanne let out a moan as he scooped her into his arms. He didn’t have the strength right now to help her stand since he wasn’t sure he could do so himself.

  Then Callahan called out from behind the control panel. “Aren’t so tough without your henchmen around, are you?” he asked Larry, who was still on the ground.

  “We’ve got to deactivate those warheads before the missile detonates,” Zhou called out.

  Finn shook, trying to knock the cobwebs out of his head. “What do you mean warheads? I thought there was only one missile?”

  “There is,” Zhou replied, his fingers dancing over the console. “But each Trident D5 carries up to eight independent warheads.”